Saturday, January 22, 2011

My witch boots were not only featured awhile back, but they've been chosen in the "Craftster Best of 2010" Holiday Category!! What awesome birthday news! Thanks to everyone who liked my post enough to "rock it"!!

Monday, January 10, 2011

This past weekend our family got together to play with some Crayola "Model Magic" clay my daughter received from Santa on Christmas. We tried to make some plants and furniture for the cardboard house that daddy made.

It was the strangest clay to work with. It's kinda spongy. Dried really fast, which made it wrinkle and crack. I don't recommend it for any serious sculpting. You had to know what you wanted to make before opening the package. And, worst of all, it doesn't save. We did find that coloring it with marker was cool. Not only could you change the color easily, but it made the clay softer and last a little longer.

I attempted the three on the left (a bromeliad, cactus and some sorta fantasy succulents) and the middle front one (an aloe). Daddy made the large paddle cactus in the middle back that he didn't color. And daughter made the two on the right. I think her cactus is adorable. Grandma also attempted some, but smashed them before we could get them away from her. It really was frustrating clay to work with.

After the others got overly frustrated and gave up, I continued to make a hermit crab with log and decoration out of the scraps.

And, lastly, before the clay was too unbearable to work with, a top hat that looks like it's seen better days:

We may use what she has left to make some cushions and pillows for future furniture. Other than that, we won't be buying any more of this stuff. :)

Tuesday, January 4, 2011

My daughter has finally flipped out and joined the Pillow Pet obsession that is sweeping through her elementary school. If you don't quite understand what all the fuss is about, they're these stuffies that convert to pillows. I believe that another company is making some I find actually cuter called "Zoobies". Basically the concept is to fold your furry pillow (with a head on it) in half like a taco...

...so it can stand on all fours like a chubby animal.

When the Velcro'ed strap is undone, it lays flat so you can sleep on it.

My daughter received the Monkey for Christmas. However, for some absurd reason this past week, she decided she wanted to spend her holiday money on ANOTHER Pillow Pet. :0 I just couldn't bare to see her forking out $20 on one (let alone a 2nd one!). So, I made her a deal. I told her if she didn't buy it, but instead put her money in her college fund, I'd make her one however she wanted it to look. I had her draw up her dream pet. After a little brainstorming, she came up with this:

If you can't decipher this image, it turns out she wanted a black bunny with brown feet and blue ears, eye patches and tummy. Oh! And I forgot the green tail. Yep, that's what she asked for. Oh boy. :) Off to the polar fleece remnant pile to find it. She was in luck. We had matching colors and enough to make it.

We later opted to make the green tail a pom-pom to match the body and ears with leftover scraps of black and blue. Waste not, want not, right?

It took one evening to whip up what we are now calling a "Cushion Critter". If you'd like to attempt one of these for your own kids, I'm sharing the pattern and a brief tutorial with all of you for a limited time. You can find it at: http://www.box.net/shared/o76leau9xb

You'll need to be able to enlarge the pattern to 400%. I set it up on one letter-sized page is PDF format. If you try it, please let us know how it works for you by commenting. It was very easy to make. Especially using polar fleece, which is nice to work with and easy to care for. She decided she didn't want the doll eyes we had planned to put on it. And, I didn't want to mess with hand-sewing the head on. (My luck I'd get it all crooked and wonky.) So, instead I sewed the head into the body, which made it kinda buff in the shoulders. :)

She has named it "Stitch", due to it's resemblance to the cute little blue Alien in the "Lilo and Stitch" movie. It was actually meant to be a "pooka". I'm doing a swap with a person who mentioned liking the movie "Harvey" about a giant pooka. Daughter wanted to know what they were, so we looked it up. Turns out I think "Totoro" is also one. Though, his name is supposed to be a mispronunciation of "troll" in Japanese. :)